This may be a stupid question but does an automatic maxima have a flywheel.I was looking at the unorthadox flywheel but I am not sure if this is only for manual tranmissions.

 

There's no such thing as stupid question. Stupid answers are abundant, I'm an expert giving those...

Here's one:
I have not opened my auto, but I suspect I have empirical evidence: as flywheel edge has gears where starter motor fits its revolving gear as I start my engine, I suspect smtg similar has to be there as is manual tranny cars. (My car started at least last year

 

Auto = Flexplate
Manual = flywheel.

Look in the autozone manual in the stickies

 

yea what he said, and basically a flexplate is a flywheel with no friction surface, it is just something for the tourque converter to bolt to

 

Actually it's just there to hold the ring gear for the starter

 

and the torque converter bolts to it...doesnt it, i just took an auto apart like last month, if not then what is that part called..?

 

In other words i cannot install an unorthadox flywheel because an automatic does not have the same type of flywheel.

 

in other words, you don't need one because there is no real weight savings to be gained

 

First off the flywheel will be heavier than a flex plate.
Second the flywheel is about 7 times thicker than a flex plate and does not have the mounting holes for the torque converter

 

if you want tranny upgrade, do a valve body upgrade or a 5speed swap and then put a lighten flywheel in..

 

5-speed swap

 

with a lightened flywheel, what are the improvememnts... i can understand that my RPM's would lower and raise quicker due to the mass decrease when rotating the flywheel..
how would this improve performance ..? anybody drive a max with a lightened flywheel.?

 

it simply allows the engine to accelerate faster. for daily street driving, I really don't see much difference, but on the track it's pretty obvious how much better it is.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for drag racing though, since you want a heavy flywheel to help you launch the car. once you're rolling, the light flywheel will help- but you can make up more time by getting off the line better than you can by saving 10lb of rotating weight on the drivetrain.

 

hey matt,
i ask because i am replacing the clutch and was thinking about lightening while i get it surfaced...
do they use a similar machine as they do with crank balancing to ligthen the flywheel properly.? i want to get it done, but DO NOT want to end up with a un-balanced wheel..
what kind of shop do you suggest i get the lightening done at i.e. machine shop, engine rebuild shop ?
thanks

 

any shop that can balance a crank or flywheel will be able to do it. I took it to a local race machine shop that builds engines for John Force (lucky me, they're 3 min from my old house and are pretty cheap for basic work.

but just make sure they can balance it afterward.
you can take about 3lb out of it by cutting off the back ring and smoothing out the sand cast portion along the back.. won't hurt the strength and will make a difference. those suckers are still heaaavy though.

stock: 20.2lb
lightened stock: 17.9lb
fidanza: 10lb.

 

i cant wait to see the difference.. along with my shortened shifter and re-inforced mounts....wone feel like im driving a 3 speed truck.. :O)
matt, can you explain to me the process of how the lighten the flywheel, do they go back and forth between the machining and balancing, one machine does all ?? i just want to make sure they can do it, because alot of places say they can do it.... i wanna ask them questions to test them..
thanks a bunch..

 

if they can machine a crank or balance an engine, then they can do this. basically all they do is take material out of the back of the flywheel, then rebalance it when they're done.

print out the pic of the back of Jeff's flywheel and show them... you can see where material has been taken off it when you flip yours over and compare it.

plan about 3 days for the work though- usually it takes a while. this isn't like simply resurfacing the friction surface.